AN ELITE team of firefighters from Hampshire tested their survival skills with extreme weather training in Denmark.

The nine-man group camped out in unforgiving conditions, where temperatures routinely dropped as low as -16C, and tackled disaster simulations involving earthquakes and tsunamis to test the skills of the UK’s International Search and Rescue team (Ukisar).

The contingent from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service worked with firefighters from elsewhere in the country as well as France, Russia and Denmark.

The team had to deal with four earthquake scenarios which featured piles of rubble and debris and collapsed buildings, including a school and hospital, as well as overturned cars and the carcass of a plane.

The immersive exercise included a pregnant woman made homeless by the disaster and a casualty who refused to be rescued by a man on religious and cultural grounds.

Other actors were tasked with physically obstructing the crews or playing casualties.

The fictitious community also had no power or water.

Base of Operations manager Robin Bates, of Hampshire’s Urban Search and Rescue (Usar) team and Ukisar, said: “Training exercises like this save lives.

“These scenarios give you the chance to practice your skills in a way that is as close to a real event as possible.

“You also get the chance to cooperate with other teams and see how this would work in a real disaster situation.”

The firefighters were also whipped by fierce winds and torrential rain as they toiled in swampy conditions.

More than 160 people were involved in the exercise in Randers that lasted eight days.

Mr Bates has been deployed to the earthquake in New Zealand and severe flooding in Bosnia plus training exercises in Germany and Italy as well as several locations across the UK.

He said: “We are often sent out to help in countries which have nothing at all.”

This exercise was funded and co-ordinated by Danish rescue organisation Falck.

The Hampshire team members working with Mr Bates were Adrian Johnson, Barry Atkins, Neil Brice, Jason Avery, Phil Crook, Marcus Hill, Kevin Fyfe and Simon Forster.